The present disclosure relates to a chip electronic component and a manufacturing method thereof.
An inductor, one of chip electronic components, is a typical passive element forming an electronic circuit together with a resistor and a capacitor to remove noise. Such an inductor may be combined with the capacitor using electromagnetic characteristics to configure a resonance circuit amplifying a signal in a specific frequency band, a filter circuit, or the like.
Recently, as the trend for the miniaturization and thinning of Information Technology (IT) devices such as various communications devices, display devices, and the like, has grown, research into technologies for miniaturizing and thinning various elements such as inductors, capacitors, transistors, and the like, used in the IT devices, has been continuously undertaken. The inductor has also been rapidly replaced by a chip having a small size and high density and capable of being automatically surface-mounted, and the development of a thin type inductor formed by mixing a magnetic powder with a resin and applying the mixture to coil patterns formed on upper and lower surfaces of a thin film insulating substrate through plating has been conducted.
A direct current (DC) resistance Rdc, main properties of the inductor, may be decreased in accordance with an increase in a cross-sectional area of a coil. Therefore, in order to decrease the direct current resistance Rdc and improve inductance, a cross-sectional area of an internal coil of the inductor needs to be increased.
Methods of increasing the cross-sectional area of the coil may include, two methods, that is, a method of increasing a width of the coil and a method of increasing a thickness of the coil.
In the case of increasing the width of the coil, a possibility in which short-circuits may occur between coil portions may be increased and the number of turns capable of being implemented in an inductor chip may be restricted to cause a decrease in an area occupied by a magnetic material, such that a decrease in efficiency may be caused, and the implementation of a high inductance product may be limited.
Therefore, in the internal coil of the thin type inductor, a structure having a high aspect ratio (AR) by increasing the thickness of the coil has been required. The aspect ratio (AR) of the internal coil means a value obtained by dividing the thickness of the coil by the width of the coil. Therefore, the aspect ratio (AR) may increase as an increasing amount of the thickness of the coil is greater than an increasing amount of the width of the coil.
In order to implement the high aspect ratio (AR) of the internal coil, growth of the coil in a width direction needs to be suppressed, and growth of the coil in a thickness direction needs to be accelerated.
According to the related art, at the time of performing a pattern plating method using a plating resist, the plating resist needs to have a large thickness in order to form a coil having a large thickness. However, in this case, since the plating resist needs to have a predetermined width or more in order to maintain its form, an interval between coil portions may be increased.
In addition, at the time of performing an electroplating method according to the related art, short-circuits occur between coil portions and a limitation in implementing a high aspect ratio (AR) may be present, due to an isotropic growth phenomenon in which a coil is grown in a width direction thereof as well as in a thickness direction thereof.